Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE W RA NATIONAL E E R NDU ANCE SERIES By Cary Lurie Photos by And y Chadwe ll BRASELTON, GA, OCT. 17 BR/ Semoff Bros. Racing captured t he 1998 W ERA Na ti o na l Enduranc e Series Ch ampion sh ip with a come-from-beh ind victory in the fo u r- ho u r fi nal round , he ld a t Road Atla nta. Taking the lead with just minut es left in th e eve n t, SBR' s Gle n n Szar ek and Michae l Barnes crui sed to a 14-second lead over preseason favo rite Arcligh t Suzuki. The champio nship is the first in the series for a Yamaha since 1988, an d the first major championship for the new R1. The stage was set for the showdown w hen Arclight Suzu ki gra bbed the overall in th e ninth round a t Texas World Speedway. SBR's third-pla ce finish pu t the two teams in a virtual tie going into th e final round. Whichever team prevaile d a t Ro ad A tlan ta w ould b e crow ned the champion. Arclight Suzu ki stuck to their seasonlon g , g a me pl an b y u sin g Ma rk McDa ni el , Joe Pruss ia no a nd Chris Hughes to pilot th e Su zu ki GSXR750 Heavyweigh t Sup erbike at Atlanta. SBR ch ose to bring in 1998 Formula USA Cha mpion Michael Barn es of Dutchman Racing to join Glenn Szarek on the R1 Heavyw eig h t Superbi ke m ach in e, a cha nge fro m th e Heavyweigh t Superstock class. "We didn' t wa nt to make too ma ny changes ," sai d SBR team owner Evan Semoff. "When we foun d out about our class points lead , we decided to ma ke the cha nge . We h ad th e la rger ta nk ready - it just need ed painting. Then we just put on the slicks." Arclig ht's Mc Daniel ju mpe d to the early lea d , followed by SBR' s Szarek and Tapeworks' Ha rwell. 1-800CROTCH ROCKET's Yamaha Rl a nd ~ ~ ,....... ,....... ... (l) . .n E (l) > o z 22 Round 10: RoadAtlanta TKO's Suzuki GSXR750 rounded ou t the top five. Firestorm' s Scott Brown got a mediocre start and dropped to seven th. Arclight s tretche d th e lea d a nd co ntrolled the first hour . Midway through the first hou r, Josh Hayes of Kids: Don't Smoke! was forced to pu sh the Suzuk i GSXR600 up the hill fro m turn 11, and he coasted down to the pits. Charging from the back row up to the top 10, Hayes lost that 'a d vantage bu t saved valuable time by makin g it back to the pits. . " I Jon' t know what happened:' said an exha usted Hayes after his strenuous effort. "It spit, spu ttered, an d jus t quit. It's working now, bu t who knows?" Ryan Land ers rejoined the race when the machine res tarted. Fuel consumption became a factor as th e fi rst ho ur wore down . 1-800CROTCH RO CK ET, out of fue l, was brou gh t in o n th e crash tru ck , an d TKO' s Brian Gibbs coasted in to the pits. "When th e fue l li g h t co mes o n, you've go t to come in - it wo n' t make tw o lap s, " Gibb s s ho u te d to Lu ke Yarbroug h as they mad e their pit stop and cha nge d rid ers. Afterward, Gib bs ad ded , "It ran out in turn seven on the far side of the track; I nursed it to th e hill." Th e fi rst -hou r r es u lt s s ho w ed Arclight Suzuk i leading SBR by 20 seconds w ith, Firestorm Racing charging back to th ird jus t 13 seconds ahead of the fourth-pla ced Ta pew or ks Raci ng machine. Arclight Suz uki pitted at the start of the second hou r. After a 32-second pit stop, Joe Pru ssiano rocketed out of the pits to try to regai n the lead. Arcligh t usually changes tires and rider and also refuels in under 20 second s, but a bobble w hile removing the chai n from the rear wheel cost them the extra time and allowed SBR to take the lead. One lap after Arclight pi tted, Army of Darkness ' Sam Fleming rammed the Fire Ball Racing Kawasaki ZX6R fro m behin d a nd cras hed. The bi kes a nd , deb ris littered the track in turn one, forcing a red flag. Cycle Spee d Racing also wen t down. "He jus t hit the br ak es: ' Fleming said. "I d idn' t have anyw here to go. He stood it up and I hit him ." Unable to work on the machine during a red flag, Army of Dar kness surveyed the da mage to the Suz uki GSXR600 and wa ited impatiently for the restart. A second red flag was thrown on the first lap after the restart w hen ano ther rider went down, blocking the track. Arclig ht 's Pr uss ia no jumped to a qu ick lea d af te r th e second res ta rt. Fi res torm 's Ch r is "Op ie" Cay lo r ski p ped the wa r mup la p for the first restart to save the fuel and was caug ht in t he pits for the seco nd re d flag . Fires torm rejoined the grid for the second restart. SBR's Szare k was forced to wait to pit. Szarek pitted on the first lap after th e race resumed, handing th e reins over to Barnes, who was brou gh t in only for this race. "O u r m a in go al wa s to ma tch Glenn's (Szare k) tim es: ' said Semoff. "Barnsey's the Form ula USA Champion, so why not use him?" Tap ewo r ks Racin g' s Acr ee too k ad va ntage a t the res ta rt and grabbed second pl ace from SBR. While Arclight kept the lead , Firestorm followed thirdplaced SBR by only five seconds . Arcligh t' s seaso nlong strategy has been to tak e the ear ly lead and lea ve everyo ne else to battle for second. SBR used the red flags and pit stops to keep Arclight in sight. The third-hour results showed Arcligh t' s lead over SBR had remained at less than a lap , with Tap eworks holding third . Ryan Landers of Kids: Don 't Smoke! gave the fans a show in the esses of turn four during the fina l hour. Low-sid ing SBR Racing (22) leads Tapeworks Racing (4), Arcllght Suzuki (2) and Circle VRacing (5) early in the four-hour WERA endurance race at Road Atlanta. SBR won the race and the championship. on top of the hill, Land ers slid to th~ ou tsi de of the corner, jumped up and looked for his machi ne. Unable to locate the bike, Landers climbed onto the crash wall and still couldn 't see the GSX-R600. Finally giving up and re turning to the pits, Landers faced his team without the bike. The machine was later discovered, after dark , in a 45-foot ravine past a lin~ of trees . Ski pping ov er the w all , the Suz uki had sailed through the trees to d isappear from sigh t. A tow truc k wa s need ed to retrieve th e mos tlv und amaged machine the next day. Th e fi na l hour of th e 1998 WERA Na tional Endura nce Series seaso n saw a battle on the track and in the pits. SBR's Szarek and Barnes kep t their Rl on the track longer than Arclight. The extra fuel capacity allowed SBR to stay ou t longer than they could before they changed the fuel tank. Arcl igh t was forced to play catch-up in the closing minu tes, but they fell short by mere seco nd s. Tapework s Racing followed in thir d. " It was nice to bea t the big gu y: ' Semoff said. "The whole th in g about brin ging in Michael Barnes started wh en Arcligh t ran two bikes at Putnam. They wa n ted to pu t another bike in betw een us to pad the poin ts advantage. We felt we had to d o so mething to fight back. We knew we wanted to d o this before Texas, and it wo rked ou t." I~ Road Atlanta Motor Sports Center Brase lton, Georgia Resu lts : M 15-18 ay EN DU RA NCE O/A : 1. SBR/ SemoH Bros. Racin g (Yam); 2. Ardight Suzu ki (Su z): 3. Tapeworks Racing (Suz): 4. Firestorm Racing (Suz ): 5. Cir cle V Racin g (Suz).

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